The Israeli army is constantly bombarding the Gaza Strip on Saturday after a night of violent clashes between soldiers and Palestinian Hamas fighters and strikes of unprecedented intensity since the start of the war which destroyed hundreds of buildings.
At 22e day of the conflict which left thousands dead, the Palestinian territory of Gaza, besieged by Israel and where some 2.4 million inhabitants are crowded together deprived of everything, is now cut off from the world due to the shutdown of telecommunications and the internet.
PHOTO MOHAMMED ABED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People gather amid debris piled up in the middle of a street following Israeli strikes on the Al-Shatee camp in Gaza City on October 28.
The UN has said it fears an “avalanche of human suffering” in Gaza, where the Israeli army has been carrying out a devastating bombing campaign since October 7 in retaliation for a Hamas attack in Israel in which more than 1,400 people were killed. mainly civilians, according to the authorities.
The Health Ministry of Hamas in power in Gaza said in its latest report on Friday that 7,703 people, mostly civilians including more than 3,000 children, had been killed in Israeli raids.
On Saturday, the army announced that it had “hit 150 underground targets” overnight in the north of the Gaza Strip, where according to it Hamas directs its operations from a gigantic network of underground tunnels.
Among the targets, “tunnels used by terrorists and combat sites”, she added, reporting “several Hamas terrorists killed” including a leader “having taken part in the organization of the massacre of 7 october “.
According to the spokesperson for Civil Defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Bassal, “hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed and thousands more damaged” in the nighttime bombardments which, he told the AFP, have “changed the landscape” of the northern Gaza Strip.
PHOTO ARIS MESSINIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This photo taken near the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows smoke rising during an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on October 28.
According to AFP journalists in Gaza, aerial and artillery bombardments continued on Saturday against the Palestinian territory.
During the night, hours of continuous bombings and strikes shook the windows and ground of Ashkelon, in southern Israel, bordering Gaza, until 4 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Eastern time) , according to AFP journalists on site.
“Immense anguish”
Smoke and an acrid burning smell filled the air at sunrise in Ashkelon and Sderot, while fighter jets continued to fly at low altitude and detonations could be heard coming from Gaza.
An imposing column of black smoke was visible above Gaza City.
During the night, Hamas, which said it was “ready” to face an Israeli ground offensive, reported violent clashes between its fighters and soldiers in Beit Hanoun (North) and al-Boureij (Center), and fired salvos of rockets towards Israel.
After announcing an intensification of its “significantly” strikes on Friday evening, the army confirmed on Saturday that its forces had “entered Gaza and expanded their operations there”, after two other incursions the previous two nights.
“We will continue to bomb from the air and the sea,” said army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
“The elimination [de responsables du Hamas] weakens them,” he added, stressing that the army had not reported any casualties during the night operations.
At the end of “a night of immense anguish”, the families of the hostages, the majority Israeli, held by Hamas in Gaza said they were “worried” about their fate and demanded explanations from the government.
According to the army, 229 hostages, Israeli, binational or foreign, were taken to Gaza on October 7 by Hamas, which has since released four women. Hamas estimated Thursday that “nearly 50” hostages had been killed in Israeli bombings.
“Serve as a cover”
The intense nighttime bombings coincided with a communications and internet outage in Gaza.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, as well as several NGOs and UN agencies, have indicated that they have lost contact with their teams in Gaza.
Humanitarian operations and hospital activity “cannot continue without communications,” said Lynn Hastings, humanitarian coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
This situation “also prevents ambulances from reaching the injured,” lamented the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“This information blackout risks serving as a cover for mass atrocities and contributing to impunity for human rights violations,” Human Rights Watch warned.
Subject to an Israeli land, air and sea blockade for more than 16 years, the Palestinian territory has been placed since October 9 in a state of “total siege” by Israel, which has cut off water, electricity and supplies. in food.
“Without fundamental change, the population of Gaza will suffer an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering,” warned UN boss Antonio Guterres.
“Many more” people will “soon die” due to the Israeli siege, said the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, whose organization has reduced its operations significantly. significant in Gaza due to bombings and lack of fuel.
On Saturday, Israeli spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the army “will today allow the entry of food, medicine and water for the population” of Gaza.
“Stop this madness”
Since October 21, only 84 trucks of humanitarian aid have arrived in Gaza from Egypt according to the UN, when at least a hundred are needed per day.
In New York, the UN General Assembly demanded by a large majority an “immediate humanitarian truce”, a resolution welcomed by Hamas but rejected by Israel.
Israel says it wants to “annihilate” Hamas after the October 7 attack. That day, in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israeli soil from Gaza, where they carried out the deadliest attack in Israeli history.
“Intensified Israeli bombing of Gaza has once again targeted women, children and innocent civilians […] Israel must immediately stop this madness […] », indicated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a message published on X.
A ground offensive in Gaza worries the international community which fears a regional conflagration, while Iran, support of Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah, has issued several warnings to the United States, a close ally of Israel.
Tension is very high in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, where more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7. And on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire are almost daily between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.